Oregon State football: Do the Rodgers brothers and Paea and Miller and Cameron Collins really live in the weight room?

Tuesday, with Oregon State football. More from Bryan Miller, the Sports Performance Center coordinator who is in charge of the players’ strength and conditioning program.

Miller on a variety of topics:

On dealing with injuries: (there were two significant injuries before and during spring ball. OLB Keith Pankey’s torn achilles and the minor knee issue with LT Michael Philipp)

“Any time we have an athlete with any type of injury – and (Pankey’s) happened to be pretty severe – even someone with a pulled hamstring, myself and the staff we look at why did this happen to this individual? We piece it together kind of like a CSI unit. We meet with (trainer Barney Graff) and rely a lot on his input. Then based on the evidence we have, we try to put a corrective program together so that it doesn’t happen again for that individual. … and sometimes the stuff is so beneficial, we just have the whole team start doing it.’’

Defensive end Gabe Miller's quick 10-yard-dash time is a much better indicator of his impact on the field than his clocking in the time-honored 40-yard-dash Examples of some new procedures or exercises?

“During spring ball we had a couple guys with groin, and hip flexor, and hamstring pulls. Nothing serious, but enough to where they might not run full speed in practice. We looked at that, and added in some new exercises into the core work at the beginning of workouts to prevent that from happening in August (when Fall camp starts) and during the season.’’

Miller said Pankey’s injury was a freak accident

“I was right there. It was the first team run we had, the first Wednesday morning. I was standing at the group next to his and I really didn’t see it happen but I could tell (it was a freak accident). … Michael Philipp, that was pretty minor (arthroscopic) surgery.’’

And when somebody goes down?

“If you’re hurt, you still work. When guys get hurt, it’s not like a free pass from training. If nothing else, they increase the amount of training they do based on what they are medically cleared to do. … we really crank up the intensity.’’

Break down a player’s conditioning schedule?

“It’s year-round. During the off-season, they get finals week off, spring break off, then there’s a couple discretionary “volunteer’’ weeks in there. … there’s summer (work), finals off, then we go not quite until the end of July. We go until we give them 10 days off before they have to report to Fall camp.’’

OSU Sports Performance coordinator Bryan Miller, the 'type A' personality who makes sure the football players are strong and fastSounds like budgeting time is crucial here?

“I tell all the recruits, when you decide to come here to play football, you are accepting two full-time jobs. One as a student, the other as an athlete.’’

So what is happening right now?

“This is May, and we call it a transition month. We kind of really lower the amount of conditioning that we do but we dramatically work on increasing our strength and our speed. This is the last full month of training where we can really make some good strides. … we really, really work on our speed. We’re testing 40s (40-yard-dash) this week. … in June and July, we really start throwing in the conditioning aspect of what we’re doing. … it’s a lot of work per day.’’ What constitutes a summer workout?

“A full lift, then a full bout of some type of speed work, agility work, conditioning work. … and we’ll do some strongman lifting four times a week. It’s preparing their body for, I guess, the violence of playing football. And what we’re doing can’t just be anaerobic, it can’t be just strength, it’s also got to be change-of-direction, reactive, work that prepares them for the season.’’

Does this eat up a kid’s entire day during the summer?

“The lift and the run can be completed in an hour and 40 minutes. When we go run, it’s very intense. It’s short and to the point. Some programs take guys out and run them for well over an hour. I don’t think we need to do that. … we’re kind of (running) all over the stadium. We use the ramps within the stadium, we use the stadium stairs, and we do quite a bit on the field. … we’ll sometimes bring out the heavy equipment for strongman lifting. We’ve got giant ropes and tires and sleds and slide-board workouts.’’

Do you have to hold some of the guys back? The guys like James and Quizz who want to be in the SPC workout all all of the time?

“The (Rodgers brothers) are good at listening to their bodies, number one, and number two they’re good at listening to the input we give them. They’re in here quite a bit, and the more they’re in here, the more we know what they’re doing.’’

Coach Riley has said no one outworks the Rodgers brothers

“I think they have a very business-like attitude about what they are doing. Their approach within their workouts is exactly what we want. Meaning, every workout we do, it’s a game situation. By the time we get to the season, we’ve already competed, and completed several “competitions.’’ … some people go with the analogy that they treat every workout like a practice. … the Rodgers brothers, Stephen (Paea), Gabe Miller (and others) treat the workouts like a game, a competition, and they’re either going to win it or lose it. … thankfully we’ve got a lot guys who hate losing.’’

Comment on Paea, who stars in that YouTube video where he seems to effortlessly bench-press 225 pounds 44 times?

“I would say that (even) from the standpoint that he was born with natural-type strength, he’s off the charts. And he hasn’t had much, I guess, organized or traditional training under his belt. He’s just that strong.’’

The players get fired up over that 225-pound bench press, probably because it’s the measuring stick at the NFL Combine?

“I know it’s something Stephen wants to do (continually push himself doing 225-pound reps). All of our guys like that exercise. And it’s actually the one exercise we probably do the least of any team in the country, the 225 bench press. It’s a low priority (for the staff) but at the same time it’s very much an ego-driven exercise. It’s a measure the NFL uses for strength. … when you have a high bench, you have a high level of confidence (that you will be stronger than your opponent).’’

You think the bench press is important for injury prevention, but you’re not sold that it measures the worth of a football player?

“The bench press is a great exercise if you had to do everything laying on your back. When you’ve got to play on your feet, you can’t always generate that much strength and power.’’

Is Paea the unquestioned strong man on this team?

“He has (the best) squat, and the best bench. But (safety) Cameron Collins might have the highest clean on the team, something like 340 or 345. Now there’s a guy who’s put together. Collins makes his living in here.’’

The 40-yard dash times, another situation where it means more to the players and their egos?

“I kind of get out my pretend stopwatch when I watch them at practice during spring ball. To me, (the 10-yard dash that Gabe Miller won) is more important because 10-yard sprints in football are going to occur many more times than 409-yard (sprints). … but it’s important to the players, and if it’s important to them then we’re going to work on it.’’

You do individual breakdowns on each player that go to the coaches?

“Yes, I have a report I put together for coach Riley that goes into depth about their progress, what we’ve added to their workout, some type of definition of how their work ethic is, etc. A lot of what we use to put (individual programs) together is what their position coach tells me when I meet with them. Meeting with the position coaches is a daily thing. I talk to them every day. You put all of that together, and that’s the report I give coach Riley.’’

If this is practically 24-7 for the players, how does Bryan Miller shut things down and think about stuff other than football?

“I’m a ‘type A’ personality. It’s one of my faults. I don’t physically bring work home but I bring it home mentally. … and (the training staff) absolutely takes the losses just as hard as the players. We do just as much coaching aspect as the other coaches do. We have more interaction (with them) throughout the year than their position coaches.’’

Is it difficult not to pick out favorites and get closer to some players than others?

“I treat this job as a business. I don’t think you can get emotionally attached. You can be friendly, but you can’t be their friend. But you definitely have to build a rapport, a trust, a confidence. That’s huge. At the end of a workout, they’ve got to trust that I’ve given them the right stuff. … I think we have very good rapport with the athletes here.’’

What else should people know about Bryan Miller?

“I love what I do, and I’m doing what I love. I think the staff that I work with is the best staff in the country. I’m only as good as those guys are. … Clete McLeod’s background is in sports nutrition. Tim Rabas was a nationally competitive weightlifter who brings a lot of coaching and Brendon Zeigler, he should be a doctor. His eye for movement and his knowledge of exercise and corrective exercise is phenomenal. .. Jen Miller (his wife, who he met at Northern Illinois) was a very successful heptathlete in college and a former athletic trainer who brings a lot to the table from that standpoint.’’